“One day, the mountain that is in front of you will be so far behind you, it will barely be visible in the distance. But the person you become in learning to get over it? That will stay with you forever. And that is the point of the mountain.” ― Brianna Wiest, The Mountain is You I […]
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Navigating Cones of Uncertainty
It’s been a long week filled with many dedicated hours preparing the canal house for its new occupants. Hard to believe that I closed on this property two years ago this October. I couldn’t say it then, but that house needed extreme TLC. Basically, it was a hot mess, but I didn’t want to hurt […]
Revisiting the Past through Old Emails
I was cleaning out old work emails, and of course found a ton of email threads between Lynn and I that ranged from 2007 (when I started working at this job) and 2014 (when she passed). Phew – what a trip down memory lane… tibits of our life, “mundane” conversations that ultimately depict a shared […]
Navigating Unpaved Roads
The other day, an archived Facebook post, and accompanying photo, caught me by surprise. It was the first photo I’d taken of the log home I’ve since come to call home for the past three years. August 2nd, 2023. It was the day I’d actually toured the home in person after staring at it […]
I (YOU) Will Survive ❤️🩹
“At first I was afraid, I was petrifiedThinking I could live without you by my side” Meet my girlfriends Lizzie, widowed for six years, has three amazing teenage and young adult boys. Evelyn has been divorced for more than ten years and has one amazing teenage daughter and one spunky, super-cool tween son 😎. The […]
“Small” Strong Steps Forward
Last Tuesday I attended a County Commissioner’s meeting here in Putnam County, Florida. I showed up to support the important issue of animal code enforcement which is truly needed here in this rural county. Recently, a young woman was rescued during a dog attack and there have been fatalities in this county as well as […]
Light Summer Reading 📚
The Wild Edge of Sorrow This book has been sitting on my nightstand for months. I love reading, yet that’s another thing that took a back seat to trauma and grief. I finally started reading the book today. As I lay on the sand and opened the book, I laughed to myself. “Wow, girl… you’re […]
The Tree of Life Grows On
At 5:30am Thursday, I received a text from my brother John (I was already up). He, his wife and son were in the Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, GA, waiting to board a plane for California. They were travelling to attend the Services for Oliver Tree, who is the son or our cousin Christine and her […]
Good Morning
“I’ve got nothing to say, but it’s okay.” (From “Good Morning,” by the Beatles.) *** I have been contributing to the Widow’s Voice blog on a weekly basis since February 2021. By my rough calculation, this means, God willing, that by the end of 2026, I will have churned out around 300 written pieces for […]
Moving Forward in the Garden of Chaos
I took a few days off this past week to spend some time with some very good friends in New England. I am posting from the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport on a cool overcast morning. While up here I’ve loved viewing the beautiful older homes surrounded by gardens filled with native flowers and hard wood forests, […]
I Demand a Full Refund 💵
I Did Not Order This Life 📦 Nope! not even by mistake. I want my old life back. Week started as a downer for all three of us, each for different reasons. Our daughter was devastated because she finally landed a gymnastics skill she’d been working on for months. But when she tried it again […]
Compassion Burnout and Enduring Hope
For the past 15 years I’ve blogged and authored books on the topic of the positive effects of the dog-human relationship. My dog Quint came into my life just seven weeks after my late husband’s passing and has been my quintessential companion since the earliest days of my loss. It’s hard to believe that Quint’s […]